ABSTRACT
By the time it reached the end of the long road toward becoming a truly Roman provincial city – first as a Roman municipium, and later as a colonia – Edessa was already experiencing the first shocks of the renewed conflict with Persia under the Sassanid kings. The first ten to fifteen years after incorporation of the former client kingdom in the empire will have featured important developments that set Edessa on the path to full Romanization. Among them were the absorption of the entire region into the Roman tax-revenue system, a process in which the cities of the empire were always instrumental; opportunities for social advancement (for example, membership in the Roman equestrian order) based on service to the municipality and to Rome; the growing presence and influence of Roman soldiers from the forces garrisoning Osrhoene, and the service in the Roman army of troops provided by Edessa (the Osrhoenian archers attested under Severus Alexander, Dio 78.14.1; Hdn. 6.7.8, 7.1.9, 7.2.1).
